Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-16

Judge Hager have resulted in opening
up persistent and bitter attacks upon
him on the part of certain ring
Of the partisan press OF San
Francisco. He now proposes to
carry the war into Africa, and says:
eff the press wants anything to talk
about, the unlawful but complete
abrogation OF the restriction act by
the Federal Judge is what it ought to
harp upon. The average cost OF land
ing coolie is $120. Atthis rate there
is too much money in the business
of bringing Chinese to this country
and permitting them to land Tor the
custom house to be able to stop 1t. :"
The San Francisco Call from which
these statements are taken goes ON to
say in this connection:
Some shyster goes before the court
with an affidavit that a Chinaman
whom the custom-hOuse has rejected Is
restrained of his liberty, and the court
at once issues writ and the man is
taken ashore. In some cases the writ
is served before the custom-house has
had time to examine the evidence
upon which the right to land is de-
manded. Collector Hager makes
statements which the Federal judges
cannot afford to ignore. He is as re-
sponsible citizen as any one OF tne
Judges. He has been judge himself
$and has been both lawyer and law
maker. When he says, There is too
much money in the business to have
| it stopped" and that sit is bonanza
for the officials of the Federal courts,
and as long as it remains so l suppose
writs of hdbeas corpus will be granted
and the restriction act will be null
lity." the Federal judges may not
hatter themselves that they are above
the force of such statements. Col
lector Hager does not regard a
Cbinaman, who is denied landing
because he has not the certificate the
law requires, as restrained OF his
| liberty; it is difficult to see how any
Judge can who is not blinded by SELF
interest. A writ of hdbeds corpus takes
people out OF jail, out OF a mad-house,
or other place of confinement, and
brings them before court whose duty
it is to see if the subject of the writ Is
unlawfully confined. Ii the court
finds that the subject of the writ is
confined by the ordinary process oi
law that he is under sentence OF a
court, or is held in restraint during
the ordinary process of trial, the court
remands the subject to the place from
which he was taken. The object OF
the writ is to enable a person charged
with an offense to show, if he can,
that he has been unfairly dealt with.
Now let us apply this writ to a Chi
nese passenger Just arrived in port.
If he comes with the certificate the
law requires he is landed without
trouble. The custom-house lands
hundreds of such at the ar
rival of each Chinese steamer.
It sometimes lands Chinese hold
ing certificates that it is convinced
had not been issued to them because
proof of fale personation is not sutfi-
cient to warrant rejection. Conse-
quently, it is only the Chinese whom
the custom house has rejected Oh
Chinese whom the custom house is
certain to reject, who become subjects
of writs of habeds corpus. Can such
persons be held as being restrained O
their liberty? Mr.. Hager says not
Judges Sawyer, Hoffman and Sabir
say they may be so held. In othel
words, when the Collector will no
allow a Chinese coolie to land in de
fiance of law, the Federal courts de
clare that he is restrained of his lib
erty. The position is almost farcical
1t is not in the least surprising thai
a Federal official who sees the law he
is sworn to execute daily trampled
upon by Federal Judges, should be-
come somewhat forcible in his Ian
guage of condemnation.
Some of the judges are charged with
the practice of gross nepotism in this
connection; yet Collector Hager, and
such as he, are the men whom viru
lent partisan press attacks the Presi
dent for appointing. Such attacks
will avail nothing before the people
who will take note of these facts, ane
uphold the hands of the President ant
his appointees in their efforts to en-
force laws SO popular as this of Chi
nese restriction.
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